Bringing DJ HeroBack

Now this blog is more on the unbiased analytical side, its not really much of a fan blog or a fan site. We usually keep all major personal opinions to ourselves while discussing what we should see in the next generation of gaming. All this is going to be put aside because there is a cancelled franchise that needs to rise from the dead. For the sake of the world of quality gaming, we need this back.


I want DJ Hero back.





We need DJ Hero back.

Activision canned the franchise in 2010 after sluggish sales and a noticing of the dying of the music genre (the dancing genre however is picking up). But it was hands-down one of the best new franchises from the seventh generation, and the best new musical franchise. DJ Hero was one of the best games of the past decade as it introduced a new way of playing video games. And after the sequel, the franchise was already matching the quality and acclaim heights of the Rock Band series and the earlier Guitar Hero titles. Two games in and we were barely scratching (pun intended) the surface of what we can accomplish with the DJ Hero brand.


Someone needs to whether buy this franchise, or Activision should bring it back. But I want it back. Now. I want to be able to scratch Daft Punk classics. I want to be able to imitate the works of Grandmaster Flash, DJ Jazzy Jeff, DJ A.M. (r.i.p), David Guetta, Deadmau5, and other very talented DJs in the Western Hemisphere scene. I want to be able to scratch excellent mixes being done by the surprisingly talented in-house development team of FreeStyle Games. DJ Hero does such a great job they make overrated and undertalented artists like Black Eyed Peas and Kanye West bearable.




And now, looking ahead (and using my imagination): I want to be able to create my own mixes; I want to be able to mix-up and mash my list of songs, and then upload them for other gamers around the world to download. I want to be able to compete in DJ tournaments online and try to top other scores of aspiring DJs across the board. I want professional DJs like Daft Punk and RZA to continuously upload some of their mixes for us to download and mess around with. I want to be able to create my own dance club and set it up in my way for me to able to watch my creation bounce around to the latest beat. The sky was the limit with DJ Hero and its infectious and clever gameplay. Unfortunately, unless a revival is in order next generation, we may have just seen the last of a potentially incredibly awesome franchise.




Bottom Line: DJ Hero was an excellent idea well-executed in its first couple games, but with so much more room to grow. It was one of those few cases of a series of games being made exclusively for the hardcore, for a specific crowd as opposed to trying to adapt fully to the mainstream. If you need any proof, point to the music and the artists associated with said games. DJ Hero could have expanded to a point in which we have hundreds of gamers creating their own mixes and sharing them with the world, leading to an online experience that you wouldn’t get anywhere else. But as of now all we can do is hang on to our dreams and hang on to the two great games that have already come out. One thing is certain though:





I want my DJ Hero back.



Now.

The Potential Epicness of SNES HD

The Super Nintendo we all know is arguably the greatest system ever created. All the forces of nature were working in its favor, as the first-party games of Nintendo were almost all masterpieces, and the company even got a slew of instant classics from second and even third-party developers. IGN even managed a list of the 100 greatest SNES games, and as of now have not included a title that felt like just filler to complete the ranking (except for that one unicycle game). In my personal ranking of the 20 greatest video games in history, a good percentage of them are on the Super Nintendo. And in terms of musical soundtracks, the SNES occupies the top titles on the list. The Super Nintendo has handed us a better controller, and a more consistent (in terms of quality not quantity) and varied library of games than any other system out there. The XBox 360 was closest, but failed to deliver enough RPGs and (great) platform games to take the crown.


Part of the appeal of the Virtual Console when it was announced was that we gamers could purchase SNES gems at a cheap price to enjoy and to introduce them to a new generation of gamers. Years after the Virtual Console debut, check out these pitiful numbers: only 94 SNES titles for the Japanese gamers, and only 71 for the United States. Now keep in mind IGN has a list of the 100 best games for the SNES. These numbers are ridiculous, and totally unnecessary. Even the Playstation 3 has schooled Nintendo in terms of bringing back classics wither plethora of PSOne titles that are available for purchase online. Check out these lists—although the Japanese once again get triple the content that the Western Hemisphere gamers get. You would think that Nintendo would be the company shelling out and whoring out their greatest hits. The WiiU can change this unfortunate predicament. While the WiiU has been rumored to focus on re-releasing Gamecube titles, I think they should go a step further by creating the SNES HD.


Picture this: taking all of the classic SNES titles that we all know and love, clean up the graphics, enhance them a little, widen the screen ratio to match those of the HDTV around the world, add a few nice touches and surprises, and re-releasing them yet again for the WiiU. This also gives Nintendo a second chance to unleash the full potential of the Virtual Console, and gain support from the third-parties that helped shape the Super Nintendo so long ago. It would be the section of the Virtual Console we're definitely going to visit the most.


Can you imagine Super Metroid HD? Super Mario World HD? Earthbound HD? Mega Man X HD? Contra III HD? Donkey Kong Country 2 HD? Link to the Past HD? Super Mario RPG HD? Mortal Kombat II HD? Yoshi’s Island HD? Turtles in Time HD? Super Mario Kart HD? Now if the game already looks stellar, we don’t have to add any 3-D or other effects to the game, but instead clean the frame rate, clean any potential glitches, and give it the widescreen support. And for most of the games I’ve mentioned, that’s all you need.

With most SNES games, a small high-definition clean-up is all you have to do to make that $10 purchase a good one. A great one actually. We can even take it a step further by offering an enhanced soundtrack to most of these games. Can you imagine playing Super Metroid with one of several OCRemix songs playing in the background? Street Fighter II Turbo for XBox Live did that and look how well it turned out. Now this would work on the WiiU not only because it’s a more powerful system and the demand for HD versions of classic games remains decently high (See: Marvel vs. Capcom 2 HD), but also because the WiiU controller and its massive screen in the middle would be utterly perfect for playing Super Nintendo games. Now for those pondering, it wasn’t totally my idea—the idea stems from the XBox Live recent support of adding a nice HD touch to games from the past like Street Fighter II and Perfect Dark (my favorite example—still the best shooter of all-time).


Bottom Line: Nintendo can really step up to the plate and deliver next year if they can do what they did with the SNES games on the Wii—except offer much more than a measly 71 games out of a potential 700+, and then add some HD abilities to most of their games. While this is indeed a long shot, if games like Super Mario World, Super Mario RPG, Final Fantasy III, and others can receive the HD treatment and attention that HD remakes like Street Fighter and Perfect Dark had gotten, we could see a major reason why it would be worth getting a WiiU.

An idea like this can definitely get the blessing of third-party companies, as I’m sure they’ll love to have their classics enhanced for a new audience. Companies like Sega and Capcom can definitely benefit from a linking to the past for the WiiU. Come on now, wouldn’t you fork over a cool 10 bucks to replay a Super Metroid game with cleaned-up graphics and HD-widescreen support? I am sure there is a league of gamers that would. These classic games stretched the hardware and software limitations of the Super Nintendo. With the WiiU, that limit has been stretched much farther, and its time for these games' full potential to be reached.

5 Games That Need an HD Remix (by Vann Elliot Jarmon)

A lot of games right now are getting the HD-Remake treatment – Street Fighter, Beyond Good and Evil, Final Fight, and so many others. Why? Because they are either classics that have been brought back to live for a new generation or they were unexpected hits that are still needed to played over and over again. I hate to sound like Lisa Foiles, but here is my top five games needed for an HD-Remix.



5) Mega Man X

This classic Super Nintendo/Playstation series which has brought us classic enemies such as Chill Penguin, Magma Dragoon, Spark Mandril, and one of my personal favorites Grizzly Slash is one of the first games that come to mind when thinking about HD-Remakes. Looking back, the overall graphics and presentation were revolutionary for its time and were meant to be seen in the highest quality possible. Picture a fully charged X-Buster flying across the screen in full 1080p HD or any of X’s or Zero’s fully powered moves.

If this game does get released, I see it definitely coming out on all three systems as a download purchase. However, I feel Nintendo will try to do one better – release the game on a disc, but using the full advantage of the Wii-U: activating life and weapons tanks on the fly without pausing the game while Sigma or any of those Mavericks are on the verge of a comeback – all on that big, monitor controller of theirs. Does it even have a proper name yet? Anyway, it would be awesome.



4) Onimusha

Okay, this one I have to explain because it’s been almost a decade since we last heard anything related to the Onimusha series except the fact that they want to make a movie out of it along with Devil May Cry.

This series is in need of the HD-remake for one reason – it still has money making potential. The game play wasn’t revolutionary, but the story line, graphics, and plat forming was some of its best for its time. Many people say that there is no difference between this series and Devil May Cry other than alternative timelines and heroes. Onimusha had four (Samanosuke Akechi, Jubei Yagyu, Jacques Blanc, and Soki) while Devil May Cry had two (Dante and Virgil). So, hey, combo pack – four games in each series, four separate DLCs!

Also, this game came out at a perfect time. Anime and Japanese culture was rising in the United States. It took the classic samurai hero and made him more modern: a demon fighting bad-ass that could become a demon as well.

We should see this as a Playstation Network exclusive with the possibility of going over to Xbox Live depending on sales and demand. However, looking back at history, Onimusha didn’t sell on Xbox and became a Playstation exclusive afterwards.


3) Jade Empire

This kung-fu epic for the original Xbox was Mass Effect before Mass Effect programing got started. Sadly, this game fell under notice with HALO and Ninja Gaiden – the two games becoming king and queen of the Xbox generation. My reason for giving this game the HD-Remake is simple: this game needs a second chance to strive. It brought Chinese mythology to life or as much as true of it as was. However, it was still a pretty good game that had me replaying it over and over again. When I did have an Xbox, it was this and Fable that I would jump between. As soon as I beat one, I would play the other.

This game is the toss-up because it was made by Bio-Ware, however, Microsoft does own it publishing license. Most likely, it would end up a Xbox Live DLC. Playstation fan can only cry for its awesome-ness.


2) Final Fantasy/Kingdom Hearts

This one I could go into a lengthy discussion and debate about because this is my number two pick. However, I will just give you my main three points.

• The only Final Fantasy games that would be included for an HD-Remake are VIII, IX, and X. All these games would need is a simple smoothing out of the graphics to make the game pop more for an HD audience. Kingdom Hearts would only need the original and the sequel to be brought up for HD.

• Final Fantasy VII can’t be done for a simple HD tune up. It needs a freakin’ overhaul – character redesign (heroes to enemies), rescaled buildings, even more in depth to the weapons.

• Final Fantasy X-2 will not be done or as Sheppard put it “Don’t give them the tail lights.” This game alone got the ‘WTF’ from most FF fans – especially those who are committed to the series.

Finally….





1) Def Jam Vendetta/Fight for NY

Why is this mine number one over Final Fantasy? Final Fantasy wasn’t needed to bring back an entire genre lost by another franchise. The Def Jam fighting series was conceptive to be a rival against the WWF/WWE award winning Smackdown series. Games like Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, and Tekken wouldn’t have a game released to ‘strike back’ for some time, but the Def Jam Vendetta would take WWF/WWE to their video game limit.

Yes, the Def Jam series did have its bases with wrestling. However, it made their moves more animated and stylish. After Vendetta, we received ‘Fight for NY’ – a game that took what worked in the first game and added on to it with various fighting styles, interactive environments, and more interesting ways to knock out an opponent than a wrestling ring (throwing them head first into wall, smashing them with a beer bottle, kicking their face in against a steel beam, ect.) Let’s not forget the most important part of the Def Jam fighting series: hip-hop superstars and legends fighting out in the ring with some serious tunes backing them up. Picture if Biggie and Tupac was added into the game as DLCs or some kind of special editions…mind blown.

This is one of the few games that would get a full DLC release on all three major systems and I would guess the price would be around 20 dollars. This would be one of those ‘need to have’ releases for any system.


Before I go, here’s my five of ‘Quick Hit’ mentions:

~~~~~~Power Stone (Dreamcast) – A great launch title for the Dreamcast and a fun game to play.

~~~~~Act Raiser (Super Nintendo) – One of the most difficult games to play for its time, but still addictive.

~~~~~Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks – The hidden gem in the MK Universe. It’s a must play if you are that deep of a fan.

~~~~Chrono Trigger/Cross – Do I really have to go in-depth? This is where true dedication to a game starts.

~~~~The Legend of Dragoon – It would have been on the list, but fell short. Awesome title for Sony and surprise it didn’t transition into the Playstation 2 as a sequel.

Take care and GAME ON!

The Backwards Progression of Quantity in Gaming

When Super Mario World first came out way back in 1991, it boasted 96 levels. A number of levels that high had never even been an afterthought in the early 90s, as gaming was just beginning to develop a personality and an image in the world of entertainment. In the NES days, 20 stages was considered an excellent amount. Super Mario World however broke the mold in a fathom of ways. Not only did it nearly hit the 100-level plateau, but did it without having to sacrifice any other aspects of the game---the background art, the pacing, the design, the music, and the overall quality of the game. It was a hands-down masterpiece, and from an early stage tested the limits of the Super Nintendo with its quantity as well as its quality.

Fast-forward to today. We barely can find video games that can hit past 90 levels, and some of the biggest video gamers out there can be beaten in just a couple hours. Halo 3’s campaign mode can be beaten in a fast 2-3 hours. The newer Call of Duty games focus so much on the multi-player that they cut back on the single-player mode by a substantial amount. Remember the endless days you worked on Super Metroid? Well, Metroid: Other M barely checks in at past 15 hours. Kirby Super Star for the SNES has 7 games embedded in it, including an updated version of Kirby’s Adventure. The latest Kirby game can be beat in 5-6 hours. Worst of all even the RPGs are becoming notoriously smaller. Pokemon Gold/Silver contained 16 badges, an Elite Four, and so much to do the game pack was barely able to contain it. The latest Pokemon game is still at a meager 8 badges, and still doesn’t have the badly-needed tournaments that we always see on the anime.


Now, before you mention that it’s Nintendo and only Nintendo lacking the progression, the other companies are not off the hook. The Final Fantasies of the 90s have far more gameplay and storyline to cover than the ones of today. The Gran Taurismo franchise seems to spin its wheels often after the second installment, which boasted over 100 cars to collect. The fourth one? Not even close....just 50 more cars and a dirty dozen more tracks--which are mostly retreads of previous installments. Sonic the Hedgehog 4 could have been beaten in one afternoon, while the Genesis Sonic games contained longer levels, and more of them. We still don’t have an action/adventure game from any non-Nintendo company that comes even close to hitting the amount of gameplay hours required to beat Ocarina of Time, and that game has been around for over a decade.

What the heck is going on? The games are still being sold at massive prices, similar to that of back in the 90s, but the amount of gameplay contained in the games have diminished. We have seen gameplay being shelled out and replaced with cinematic scenes, higher-quality graphics, and more multi-player goodies that occupy most of the space of the disk. Remember when the Playstation won the gaming war because the CDs were cheaper and can fit much more content? What is the excuse of the gaming industry for still not progressing in terms of amount of actual gameplay content in their video games? Picture this: when Super Mario World came out, the IPod had not been invented, and the game had over 70 stages (The 96 levels boasting was a mild lie, it actually has 96 different ways of beating a level). New Super Mario Bros. Wii, the best-selling platform game of the past generation, only has 70-80 levels. And New Mario Bros. was by no means a graphical achievement.

Some may argue that the graphics and difficulty of 3-D game production has led to shorter games. And to this, I bid bull. Check out the games that pushed the limits of the SNES graphics: Super Mario World, Donkey Kong Country, Super Metroid, Star Fox, Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars. They did not just provide top-notch graphics at its time; they were also all lengthy games (with Star Fox slightly being the exception). Hell, let’s go to a Game Boy game called Wario Land 2. That game has over 50 stages for crying out loud!! We still have 2-D games nowadays, as they’ve made a recent surge in popularity, but they still don’t hit the quantity amount of Mario World. We still don’t have a racing game that is fearless enough to give us more than 40 tracks to race in.

With the technology we possess in our hands, seeing that televisions look better than movie screens and we can communicate with someone and visually see them (even though they might be thousands of miles away) with a small computer, why in the heck are we not at a point in which games take ions to beat? Why are we not at a point in which we see 2-D games with 200 levels, or racing games banking in 75 levels?

This is because gamers are not only a crazy supportive breed, but we tend to look past the shortcomings just because we are so hungry for the next game. Gamers are some of the best consumers in the American economy, which is why video games make more money than movies, and is why more and more second/third-party companies are jumping ship to the industry. Everyone wants a piece of this pie. But we gamers just fork over $50 bucks no questions asked despite the fact that they are giving us less but maintaining the same price. 25 million gamers around the world bought Mario Kart Wii, even though it has 32 stages—the same exact number of stages as Mario Kart: Super Circuit---a Game Boy Advance game released 10 years ago. 20 million gamers bought Modern Warfare 2, even though it can be beaten in just 4-6 hours. Now gaming companies are relying on the Blockbuster effect: hype up the games to holy hell, so everyone buys them immediately before realizing that the game is eerily short.

Why is this lack of quantity thing an issue? Because video game sales are dying because of the resale market. The issue isn’t big now, but in the coming future we might have problems as the smaller companies might succumb to sluggish sales and have to stop competing. Now, if you create a game that requires months to beat, and then unload extra downloadable content on top of that, then the lasting appeal of your game will prevent you from trading in the game a mere month after you originally bought it (unless the game sucks, but that’s a totally different article). We have been blessed with arguably the greatest generation of video games in history, as all three competitors gave us a multitude of excellent games on a consistent basis. The war of the seventh generation had started way back in 2006, and just now we finally saw the market slow down a bit. That being said, how can the industry progress any further seeing all they accomplished in just 5 years? By increasing the value of the games, by infusing some more gameplay hours.


I want the next 2-D Mario to truly test my patience and endurance by flipping the script and doubling the amount of levels contained in Super Mario World---a video game that is turning 20 this year. I want the next Fable to keep me on my toes for months to come. I want the next Call of Duty to stretch to the length of a Tom Clancy novel as well as give us many more places to go and more places to engage in combat. I want the next big racing game to give us so many tracks it will take me months to master them all. I want an RPG that just explodes in storyline, similar to what we gamers experienced with Final Fantasy VI way back in 1994. I think we very supportive gamers deserve bigger, badder, lengthier games. Or at least not make it such a cinch to beat. Or at least give us multiple endings to gun for. Chrono Trigger back in 1995 had a dozen endings. Grand Theft Auto IV? Two. And that game is a freakin’ modern-day sandbox game.

Bottom Line: Video games need to be longer, there are no excuses for any video game that can be beaten in less than 10 hours. Yes I know there are some excellent games that can be beaten in less than 5, but those are very far and few when compared to the amount of games that are decent, slightly entertaining, but already beaten three days after you bought the thing. Back in the 80s and 90s we bled for those games, spent weeks mastering them and finally trying to beat the last level, the last boss. Games have gotten much easier and I will let that one slide, but if you are going to minimize difficulty, at least maximize the length. All companies are guilty of this, as they are all adopting the blockbuster technique of maximizing sales within the first week before anybody catches on (Nintendo is the lone exception as they rely on word-of-mouth to improve the sales).

For this next generation of gaming, I want more companies to truly test the limits of not the hardware, but its software and just how much they can fit inside their disks. Give me back my quantity. Quality doesn’t have to be sacrificed for quantity, just look at all the amazingly lengthy games from the SNES and Playstation back in the 90s.

We need a change.

I want to lose my social life to these upcoming video games, not have them continuously become a mere one-weekend activity.

Building the perfect Star Wars game...

When the Wii was announced several years ago, there was one franchise that we gamers knew could definitely benefit from the controller mechanisms of Nintendo’s newest machine. It wasn’t any of the first-party franchises, but actually its Star Wars. If you checked the online boards from years ago, we were stoked of the potential the Wii had on our fabled space epic franchise. But several years later, we are still on square one with the saga as its best game was the simple-yet-engaging Lego Star Wars games. Instead of a spiritual sequel to Rogue Squadron, instead of re-creating the gameplay from the Star Wars Trilogy arcade game, and instead of that lightsaber game that we always wanted---we get next to nothing. As a matter of fact, Star Wars honestly hasn’t hit its potential in any of the systems. Here is what the next big Star Wars game should look like:


Star Wars Saga (tentative title) takes you through several of the iconic Star Wars scenes throughout the six movies (yes, I have to include the prequels). Now I know this has been done to death, but usually in small doses, and never in a true epic presentation scale. Can you imagine engaging in the Battle of Hoth with the graphical presentation style of Modern Warfare? Can you imagine having Halo Reach’s epic presentation in the X-Wing aerial battles? The last game to really up the ante in Star Wars presentation was Rogue Leader for the Nintendo Gamecube, which to this day remains one of the best-looking games of that generation—and it came out at launch. I would throw in Jedi Academy for the XBox, but I'll admit I skipped out on that game. All the Star Wars games have had small doses of the films, but we’ve never had one that extensively embedded itself into the six films, and wrapped it all together in a nice package (that’s not consisting of Legos anyway). This game can change that.


Remember N64’s Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire? Or Rebel Strike for the Gamecube? They offered some variety in their missions, as they all weren’t aerial. There were some (even if flawed) on-foot missions that kept the game from being stale. Perhaps the best variety amongst the Star Wars games was the fabled Star Wars Trilogy arcade game that inexplicably never made its way to any console. With Star Wars Saga, you can podrace, fight in several space missions, wield a lightsaber, wield a blaster, do some exploration levels, visit several familiar locations, and finally immerse yourself into the Clone Wars and do some battling there—Call of Duty-style.

You don't have to be just one character, you can be many. One mission you are Han Solo, another mission you are Luke Skywalker. Hell, at one point you can be a random fighter in the aerial Battle of Endor. Part of the appeal of Star Wars is just the immense amount of stuff that goes on throughout all the films and television shows. We’ve literally seen action scenes at land, sea, air, and space. So why has that never been translated successfully into the video games?


The Wii version could have been by far the best version, but there is still hope with the WiiU. With the Wiimote, lightsaber battling would be far more fun as opposed to the controllers of the XBox 360 and the PS3. With the WiiU being backwards-compatible, the Wiimote still has relevance. And with MotionPlus accuracy, this could be like Twilight Princess—Star Wars-style. I think running around mowing down enemies with a lightsaber could definitely be one of the most fun things to do in all of gaming. And then add the blaster missions with the WiiMote, which I still say is the best controllers for first-person shooters. Lastly, the WiiWheel can be utilized for the Podracer missions, which hasn’t gotten extensive video game time since the infamous Star Wars Episode 1 Racer game years ago.


Bottom Line: All in all, we have come far enough in gaming in which we can re-create all of our favorite Star Wars moments with incredible accuracy for a new generation of gamers. When you see games like Battlefield 3, Modern Warfare, Halo Reach existing, LucasArts has no excuse as to why they can’t push the envelope with the Star Wars brand. There is too much potential here to be wasted in games that just never make the quality cut. It is time for Factor 5 or Sega or maybe even Bungie to take helm of the brand name and work with George Lucas to create the ultimate Star Wars game. It is time to combine the best of Star Wars gaming throughout the years (Episode 1 Racer, Rogue Squadron 1-2, Star Wars Trilogy) and put it all in one well-deserving package.

Star Wars Saga can be the next “Halo”, the next big gaming event.

We just need to see more effort out of it.

P.S. Some Dark Side missions would be pretty darn cool. Did anyone say Boba Fett missions?

Metroid: Nintendo's Awkwardly Mildly Sucessful Forgotten Stepchild

The franchise of Metroid turned 25 a few moments ago. Wait, you didn’t know this? Well, Nintendo definitely made a splash for Mario and Zelda when they turned 25. So where on earth is the hoopla for Metroid? Where is the love for the franchise that back in the 80s changed the face of gaming forever by introducing the first (and arguably the only) strong heroine in this entertainment field? Where is the love for the franchise that produced two of among the greatest video games of all-time? By the way the answers are Metroid Prime and Super Metroid (The latter is hands-down one of the 10 best). While Metroid doesn’t have the sales numbers of Mario or Zelda or Pokemon, it’s a franchise that has dealt with tons of unnecessary changes, tons of questionable decisions, and heavy competition and remains one of the better-respected grouping of games out there.

But do you want to see just why I consider Metroid as the “Meg” of the larger Nintendo franchises? Check this out.

After Super Metroid, it had been 8 years before we saw another Metroid title. At that same rate, we saw 2 major Zelda games (and a third in development), 2 major Mario games (and dozens of spin-offs), 2 Star Fox games, 2 major Pokemon titles (and dozens of spin-offs), and even 2 major Kirby titles. Despite the fact that Nintendo did an awesome job with Metroid at first, they still decided to hand the franchise to a rookie company with no prior experience (and already a couple failed games) to make a 3-D Metroid title. I don’t see them ever risking that with Zelda. And luckily for all of us, Retro Studios delivered with Metroid Prime.


And then they release Metroid Prime 2 just a few days after the massive release of Halo 2. That never makes sense no matter which way you look at it. And then they release Metroid Prime 3 in 2007 in August—far away from the holiday season—and with such little marketing that it started confusing and baffling major gaming publications everywhere. P.S. if flopped quite badly. And then, lastly, there is the Metroid Prime Trilogy which is an excellent deal that was removed from shelves with no explanation whatsoever. Why remove it so quickly? We can still get Mario Party 8, but no Metroid Prime Trilogy? Hardly makes sense.


And of course, there’s Metroid: Other M. This game quite literally stripped away everything we loved about the Metroid games and butchered everything we knew (or thought we knew) about Samus. Nintendo in a baffling manner hands the franchise to Team Ninja, a company with NO experience working with Nintendo and with experience working mostly on M-rated games. Metroid: Other M is the equivalent of pitting Mario in a Grand Theft Auto game or throwing Link in a God of War-like game. It was disgusting, misguided, and barbarically atrocious. The presentation and marketing was indeed a step in the right direction, but everything else….well, it’s become the Indiana Jones IV of the gaming world—it happened but to some of us, it doesn’t exist. Worst of all, it was Nintendo working on that script. Nintendo doesn’t seem to know its own child sometimes.


The handheld front is a bit better, but the fact that we don’t have a colored or updated version of Metroid II: Return of Samus, the most important entry in the plotline of the franchise is rather saddening. And while Zelda, Mario, and Pokemon have done blasts in the past with remakes/re-dos of some of their better titles, we STILL don’t have an updated/enhanced/remade version of Metroid’s best title: Super Metroid. No HD, no remake, not even a GBA or DS OR 3DS version of Super Metroid, one of the greatest games you’ll ever play. And the final nail in the coffin: we still don’t have anything for Metroid’s 25th anniversary (as of now, we hope this changes), when we’ve seen games, re-releases, and major announcements concerning the birthdays of Samus’ friends. No love for the heroine.


Nintendo, come on now. Step it up a little. I think its time for Nintendo’s Intelligent Systems (whom worked on the handheld Metroids and Super Metroid) to get back the franchise and strip it back to the basics. A massive 2-D Metroid with a few nice cut-scenes scattered about would be perfect for whether the 3DS, the WiiU, or perhaps maybe both. While Metroid: Other M got nearly everything else wrong, they did prove that Samus in the 2-D format can still look pretty good and can be fun. Just don’t mess it up with storytelling. That being said, Samus in 3-D is still a lot of fun, and while I want Retro Studios to once again work on it, I doubt they will want to give it a fourth shot. Nonetheless, Nintendo needs to step up its marketing and hype for the franchise, because I’d hate to see this series of games ceasing to exist. And lastly, don’t just throw the game out there on a random date, give it time and a chance to make some good sales and make ripples in the industry. A good HD, high-quality Metroid game can definitely help the WiiU come launch time.


Bottom Line: Samus and the Metroid name have dealt us a lot of excellent games and a lot of wonderful moments. But with that a lot of anti-love (accidental or not) from the company by bouncing it around different companies, releasing several games with minimal hype, and just not giving it the respect it deserves. Nintendo knows how to hype (even if in recent years they have not been as good) but totally drop the ball on a consistent basis with Samus. And we have the latter Metroid Prime titles (including the DS title) as the best examples. Come on Nintendo, Samus deserves better. Much better.


Give her a proper 25th birthday.


In case you don't know about the awesomeness that is Super Metroid, here is some footage:



Happy Birthday Samus.

The Eighth Generation begins............next year.

In our latest episode of “Sony You are a Stupid Company and it’s a Miracle That You Still Exist” we have the higher-ups in the Sony company announcing that they will release the new Playstation portable only in Japan, while releasing the handheld in 2012 to the other regions around the world. Instead of fighting the 3DS in the holiday season to officially kick off the gaming wars in the eighth generation, they are taking a step back and letting the 3DS conquer the entire holiday season. Without giving a fight, they are handing the Black Friday rights to the DS systems to dominate. The Japanese audience is the only ones getting their hands on it this winter, once again proving that the Japanese gaming companies to give to shifts about the Western Hemisphere world of gaming.

This is where I stop being a news reporter and become an analyst. Sony you idiot. You stupid, stupid idiot. The 3DS was a sinking ship and despite the major price change you guys still had the slight advantage in terms of momentum. You had an ITouch-like system with a decent price tag, nice sleek look, none of the 3-D nonsense, and with seemingly all the PS3 franchises ready to invade the handheld. You had hordes of gamers willing to wait those few extra months to get your handheld. You were so close. And now you’ve given Nintendo a chance to not have to compete against anybody in the market---during a time period that Nintendo has mastered for the past several years without fail.


Have you learned nothing from the launch of the 3DS? Nothing? The 3DS launched to absolutely no success, and they are still barely making money despite the fact that one of the greatest games of all-time has been restored, remade, and re-introduced to a new generation of gamers. You don’t launch a system in such a nasty fickle industry in any time period that isn’t the holiday season. Before, Sony would have had to take on a small Nintendo wave of success heading into the holiday season. Now, whatever release date Sony has, they have to take on a much stronger Nintendo wave. With the price cut, Mario Kart and a new Mario adventure inches away, I predict some nasty-good numbers in December as long as Nintendo doesn’t fudge up the marketing.


Bottom Line: Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. Sony, you are making the dumbest decision in not pushing for the holiday release date. You have a decent handheld that was one of the brighter spots of this year’s E3 show. And now, you are about to throw away all the momentum by releasing it next year---when we have the 3DS AND (repeat, AND) the WiiU lurking around the corner. While we are so sure that the WiiU is pulling a “Dreamcast,” we have to hand the award to the PS Vita, for releasing it late in one competition and pitting it against another big system that’s about to come out (Dreamcast came late in the PSX/N64 war and was released before the PS2 struck—killing itself in two different conflicts).

Sony, you had your chance.



In 2012, you are about to see the window of opportunity close shut.



Idiots.